Courses for Undergraduates

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course will cover:

• Organization of companies and engineering groups.
• Financial fluency, including time value of money, return on investment, income, and cash flow statements, and balance sheets.  
• Management of people and organizations.
• Project and program management techniques and tools.
• Management of research, development, and design.
• Operations management, including manufacturing operations and supply chains.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing

Note: This course is required for the Engineering Management minor.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course will cover:

• Written and oral communications in the business setting.
• Written communications including technical reports and papers, memoranda, and electronic communications.
• Design and delivery of effective presentations.  
• Informal communication styles and techniques.
• Communication across cultures.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None.

Note: This course is required for the Engineering Management minor.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course will cover:

• Development of knowledge, skills, and mindset essential for leading programs and teams in a business organization.  
• Creating high-performance teams and shared visions
• Cultural differences in leadership style
• Ethical considerations
• Fostering creativity and communicating to inspire
• Influencing without authority
• Managing conflict and organizational change
• Understanding personalities of self & others and emotional intelligence

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing

Note: This course is required for the Engineering Management minor.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Build knowledge about the many paths, skill sets, and strategies to early-stage entrepreneurship. Learn and unlearn what it means to be an entrepreneur while exploring different industries. Hear from experts in the field in a traditional corporate job, a startup, a social enterprise, or people running a side hustle and more. Engage in discussions and workshops to understand entrepreneurial narratives and envision an entrepreneurial future.

Restrictions on Enrollment:  None.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Theory and practice of leadership. Development and application of leadership skills across a range of contexts including startups, corporations, and nonprofits. Focus placed on developing self-awareness in preparation for the initial leadership position.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Introduction to sound money management in personal and professional finance. Creation of greater financial awareness, and development of financial vocabulary. Financial requirements across life stages including student finances, purchasing the first home planning, and investing for life events and a comfortable retirement. Basic business finances, such as budgeting, accounting statements, and taxation.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-campus

Description:

Practical examination of marketing from startups to nonprofits, including opportunities to gain hands-on, applicable experience, emphasizing the mindset and skillset to apply marketing principles. Consumer behavior, market research, audience targeting and segmentation, positioning, digital marketing, and the elements of the marketing mix. Importance of personal branding and the application of marketing principles in professional settings.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Exploring the skills and knowledge needed across an individual's career. Planning for internships and placements, preparing for a job search and gaining the skills and confidence for interviewing and starting a job. Students will develop the skills and knowledge needed to plan for a successful and fulfilling career.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-campus

Description:

Holistic view of a human life. Work-life balance, mindfulness, personal ethics, physical and mental health, setting achievable and meaningful goals, and developing the skills of personal effectiveness. How to contribute to global society with an ethical mindset and cultural sensitivity.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course will cover:

• Knowledge and skill development for students who aspire to lead and manage innovation initiatives in technology-based companies.
• Technology strategy and its role in the overall business strategy of commercial firms.
• Role of innovation in entrepreneurial ventures and established firms.
• Skills to present new product development proposals to senior management and/or prospective investors.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing

Note: This course is required for the Engineering Management minor.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Tools and techniques to promote creativity and innovation with application to everyday problem solving, launching new ventures, and working in businesses and non-profit organizations. Rapid ideation workshops for novel solutions and innovations. Tools to stimulate brainstorming and creativity. This class is designed for undergraduate students, particularly Freshmen and Sophomores, who have not taken an ENT core course and are interested in learning more about innovation and entrepreneurship.

Restrictions on Enrollment:  No previous ENT credit.

Recommendation: Students with significant design thinking, innovation or entrepreneurship experience should not take this introductory class.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course focuses on investigating, understanding, and implementing the process of founding a start-up firm. Elements of searching out new venture opportunities, matching skills with a new venture, financing, competitive strategy, intellectual property, and operating a new venture will be explored. The focus of the course will be the development and presentation of a business plan created by teams of students with various academic backgrounds.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Financial statement construction and analysis for new ventures. Financial business plan development; evaluation of disparate commercial enterprises; business valuation. Utilization of modern financial tools to support investment decisions. Skills development to define and create pathways to fund and grow a business to optimize results and minimize risks.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing. Recommended prerequisite: ENT 101

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course focuses on institutional and product marketing methods used by start-up to medium-sized companies. After an overview of basic marketing principles, the course will cover the spectrum from day-to-day marketing activities of the entrepreneurial business to positioning and strategy. Students will learn to analyze, formulate, and implement marketing strategies, explore concepts for understanding customer behavior and creating an entrepreneurial marketing strategy, and learn the fundamentals of market research, pricing, and reaching and selling to customers.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing. Recommended prerequisite: ENT 101

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Marketing isn’t Sales, and Sales isn’t Marketing, but they are both joined at the hip since every product, every service and job needs to “sold” in order to close any deal. Our “Science of Sales” course explores process, tools, technology, metrics and most importantly, the people that are required to actually sell, close orders and bring in revenue.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing. Recommended prerequisite: ENT 101

Location: On-Campus

Description:

This course is designed to help students develop the knowledge, confidence, skills, and self-image necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ventures in such domains as business, government, and public service. It provides a foundation in the fundamentals of entrepreneurial leadership, as well as a source of inspiration and energy in the art and science of taking visions and bringing them to reality.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing. Recommended prerequisite: ENT 101

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Multi-disciplinary perspective of innovative technology-based design process for societal and community influence. Elements and principles of design from product development process, thought and emotion, ethics and responsibility. Experiments to explore failure and iteration, reflection for self-discovery and innovation. Articulation and expression via written, oral and pre-recorded audio and video presentations showing measurable impact of solutions as societal benefits.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Learn how to address systemic social and environmental problems and generate financial returns. Choose a problem based on your personal why. Form a diverse team and interview stakeholders. Interact with experienced impact entrepreneurs and investors. Create and present a compelling pitch deck over time. Emerge with greater confidence as a leader, transferable professional skills, and maybe even a social impact venture.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-Campus

Description:

Nonprofits are a valued engine for community engagement and innovation across the country. This complex sector is built on the desire to do good through scalable, sustainable organizational strategies that deliver impact. Study of successful nonprofits and the connection between nonprofits, philanthropy, and impact. Grantmaking strategy and award.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Cultivate professional practices and methods that support creative career development. Weekly readings, lectures, discussions, assignments and visitors address topics related to professional artistic development including: goal setting, artist writing, networking & community building, promotion, documentation, grants & residencies, business planning, navigating non-profits, museums and galleries, etc. Develop professional artistic objectives within a community of peers

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

This course covers the entrepreneurial process from conception to commercialization or launch of a new venture focused on a consumer product. It looks at both process and people involved in assessing ideas, exploiting opportunities, gathering resources, and converting concepts into financially and technically viable businesses. 

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

User-centered approach to the creative product design process from ideation to pre-production. Identification and evaluation of a problem (opportunity), creation, development, testing (with consumers), and selection of prototyping strategies. Basic project and risk management, engineering, and analysis skills to deliver a robust working product on time and on budget. Content assumes competence in basic problem-solving skills.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Legal issues and considerations common to the business life cycle. Formation, seed and venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, securities law, employment and intellectual property, and governance considerations. Negotiation of various financing and other transactions. Speakers from the private equity, venture capital, and investment banking worlds as well as executives who have exited through a public offering or sale of their company.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Exploratory course for beginners that teaches practical, hands-on skills to make working prototypes of your products. Make physical things, make them work, and integrate them with electronics/software. Common fabrication techniques including foamboard, 3D printing, laser cutting, electronics, and Arduino programming. Demonstration of hands-on skills and entrepreneurial spirit in an individual final
project.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Understanding how your product or service fits with the consumer and how your business will fit into the market is the first step to creating a successful business. In this course students will start to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, innovation, culture, business models and strategy and how these elements vary across industries.

The course will be supported by a diverse lineup of accomplished guest lecturers from fields such as healthcare, consumer packaged goods (food & beverage), software, consulting, fintech and social impact. Team and individual assignments will reinforce key elements from the lectures and help students build up their own entrepreneurial toolkits.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-campus

Description:

This hands-on course focuses on the application of lean principles in software development with a focus on entrepreneurial projects and ventures. Students will learn to build, measure, and iterate on software products quickly to achieve product-market. Emphasis will be on leadership strategies for managing lean teams, making data-driven decisions, and fostering innovation in resource-constrained environments with high levels of uncertainty. This course places emphasis on the iterative nature of product development and decision-making in entrepreneurial environments. Students will work in agile teams, taking on roles such as Product Owner or Scrum Master, to experience how lean software development works in real-world, high-uncertainty settings.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Must have at least Sophomore standing.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Beginner-friendly course that teaches you to build software systems, including web sites and apps, without knowing how to code. Build confidence creating on line content using web builders and productivity and note-taking apps. Learn to manage and visualize data with no-code platforms. The course culminates in a final project where you will develop and deploy a fully functional app using low- or no-code platforms, allowing aspiring venture builders to test your solutions without writing a line of code.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-campus

Description:

Introductory course that takes students through all phases of business creation for an actual small business. Students will survey their skills, interests, assets and resources, choose a target market segment and associated customer problem, and create a plan for a small business built around their hobbies or professional skills. Students will learn the in’s and out’s of primary market research, iterative solution development, marketing and sales, basics of small business finance, and legal and accounting considerations. At the end of the course, they will have a real business they can launch and run as a side hustle.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-Campus

Description:

“Inside the Classroom” allows students to serve as Classroom Operating Officers (COO), where they receive course credit for providing leadership, mentorship and student support for Entrepreneurship courses. By taking Inside the Classroom, you will assist in coaching peers, organizing course work, attendance tracking, and observing group work.

See this website for more details: https://derbyecenter.tufts.edu/academics/ent-courses/

Restrictions on Enrollment:  Must have at least Sophomore standing. Registration requires department consent. Having taken the course you are proposing to support and earned an "A" grade is a prerequisite.

Description:

Under the guidance of a faculty member, students apply concepts learned in the classroom and acquire new skills as they address real life challenges while working as an intern at a company. Internships typically involve students serving in a functional role with an entrepreneurial focus, such as product management, entrepreneurial marketing and sales.

See this website for more details: https://derbyecenter.tufts.edu/academics/ent-courses/

Restrictions on Enrollment:  Must have at least Sophomore standing. Registration requires department consent.

Description:

This course enables students to apply the learning and skills acquired by other courses on entrepreneurship. Students have the option of starting a new business based on an actual business plan or consulting in an actual start-up operation. Students who select the new business option will be expected to submit a project-scope paper that outlines the elements of the launch that could be accomplished within the term limits.

See this website for more details: https://derbyecenter.tufts.edu/academics/ent-courses/

Enrollment Restrictions:  Must have at least Sophomore standing. Registration requires department consent.

Location: On-Campus (Boston) - Please note that the location for this in-person course is the Friedman School in Boston (not Medford).

Description:

This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial theory and practice relevant to the nutrition/food space will be discussed from the perspectives of a stand-alone start-up company and within larger organizations. This course is designed for students interested in exploring how entrepreneurship can be incorporated into food and nutrition and who may wish to begin to build an entrepreneurial skill set. Course topics will include ideation, finding potential investors, pitch development and pitching skills, competitive analysis, market sizing, business plan development, basic entrepreneurial finance and legal issues, entrepreneurial ethics, and management skills needed to run an entrepreneurial venture. Final products of the course will be a pitch presentation and a written business plan.

Restrictions on Enrollment: Instructor Consent - This is a cross-listed, Level 200 graduate course. Undergraduate students who wish to take this course will need to reach out to Professor Jimmy Edgerton for permission to enroll.

Location: On-campus

Description:

Development of effective communications skills across a range of personal and professional scenarios, interpersonal communication, networking, and best practices in both verbal and non-verbal communications. Written communication skills for developing formal reports, drafting emails, and using social media.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None

Location: On-campus

Description:

The "Introduction to Intellectual Property" course offers a comprehensive overview of the fundamental concepts and legal frameworks that govern intellectual property (IP) rights. Students will explore the four main categories of IP—patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets—learning how they protect innovations, brand identity, creative works, and confidential business information. The course covers key principles such as IP ownership, infringement, and enforcement, as well as the role of IP in fostering innovation and economic growth. By examining real-world case studies, students gain practical insights into how IP laws impact industries such as life sciences, artificial intelligence, material sciences and media, preparing them for further study or careers in law, business, or creative fields

Restrictions on Enrollment: Junior, Senior, or Graduate students only

Location: On-campus

Description:

This course will explore the role of business in the modern, changing world by examining different types of business and different roles and functions within business. Students will become proficient in talking about businesses and business situations while learning how to participate in a business from the inside—whether as an essential employee, manager, business leader, or entrepreneur. Through case studies, debate, role playing, and guest speakers from diverse fields, students will consider social, cultural, organizational, and technological factors affecting business organizations. This course can be a stand-alone introduction for a student who wants to gain basic business literacy and be better prepared to enter a professional career, or it can serve as a starting point for further coursework in leadership, management, business, and entrepreneurship.

Restrictions on Enrollment: None.